SV-POW! … All sauropod vertebrae, except when we're talking about Open Access

Vertebrates and invertebrates of Nova Scotia

June 16, 2015

Last week I went to Halifax, Nova Scotia, for the twice-yearly meet-up with my Index Data colleagues. On the last day, four of us took a day-trip out to Peggy’s Cove to eat lunch at Ryer Lobsters.

We stopped off at the Peggy’s Cove lighthouse on the way, and spotted a vertebrate, which I am pleased to present:

It’s a whale skull, but I have no idea what kind. Can anyone help out?

So much for vertebrates — it was really all about the inverts. Here are six of them:

I have a 2lb lobster here; my colleague Jakub went for two 1lb lobsters, as did Jason and Wolfram (not pictured). That’s Wolfram’s lobster closest to the camera, giving a better impression of just what awesome beasts these were.

We are not such men as our fathers were, nor are our lobsters such lobsters as theirs. Because of overfishing, modern lobsters are tiny compared to those of the past: in the old days they grew to over three feet long. Claws, by positive allometry, huge: I have seen an old, bleached, lobster claw (in the Peabody Museum, at Yale University) that was, I think, most of a foot long all by itself.

Thanks for the kind words, Ian. Allen, you’re right of course about overfishing in general. However it seems to me that Nova Scotia may be moderating its lobster consumption pretty well. The one I ate was as big as I could have done justice to, and they apparently have pretty strict rules on how old the lobsters must be before they can be harvested.